Five days after Ulaylee married Young S’TnG her mama announced to Marina and Sabrina, “I want to visit Ulaylee in her new home then I must return to your papa.” Thus, early in the morning Marina, Sabrina, Mama S’TO and Mama E’Kun prepared to call on Ulaylee. They carried bean cakes, Ulaylee’s work clothes she’d left behind when she married, some fresh berries, and a spindle Papa S’TO made for Ulaylee.

When Old Man S’TO learned Ulaylee liked to spin and weave, he grew excited. “A weaver would be a great asset to this valley. She can make her husband very rich.”

Ulaylee met her family at the gap in the fence around her hut. She hugged them and gave them each a watery smile.

Mama E’KuN narrowed her eyes. “Why aren’t you happy? Has that man of yours mistreated you? If you aren’t happy, I’ll take you home with me.”

“No! No, Tik is wonderful. No man could be better. His Mama is sickly and cross, and I don’t know how to make cheese. She calls me ugly.”

Marina and Sabrina looked at each other. They knew they didn’t want a weeping Ulaylee on their doorstep. “May we meet your new mama? We’ve brought bean cakes and berries for a treat.”

Ulaylee introduced her guests to her new mama. Polite greetings were exchanged until Mama S’TO spoke up. “T’SSy M’TU,” she addressed the sick woman using her childhood name. “Just look at you. Nobody would have guessed that you’d end up a crippled old women before your time. I remember when J’ST died and you said I’d die within a year. I lived, and I’m married again to a good man, but look at you. At least, you can congratulate yourself that your son married into a prosperous family.” She looked at the sick woman and shook her head.

Ulaylee looked around wondering where the prosperous family might be.

Marina set the bean cakes and berries on the crude table by the door. “Ulaylee, do you have any cheese to go with the berries?”

The old woman sneered from her cot in the corner. “Spoilt it, she did.”

Ulaylee had begun to learn that she might be able to trust her married sisters and brought out a soggy mess wrapped in leaves. “It’s soft.”

“Oo, just the way I like it.” Sabrina squealed. “I’d like some on my berries.” She took a generous helping of berries on a bean cake and added the runny cheese.

Mama S’TO would do anything for her daughters-in-law so she followed Sabrina’s example and went so far as to take a bite of the runny mess. “Oh Ulaylee, I’ve never tasted anything so good. Come Mama E’KuN, you must have some.”

Sabrina took a delicate taste. “This is wonderful. I doubt that Mother Abbess ever had anything this good at the convent.” Sabrina’s voice rang with wonderment. The runny stuff that Ulaylee called cheese tasted tangy and buttery. It coated the tongue with a rich, sweet-tart cream that held pleasant under tastes speaking of herbs and berries.

Marina took a delicate bite, “Sister, you’ve done this perfectly, but it needs a better container than the leaves. I’ll send Hau down with a proper crock this evening. Well, two crocks because I want some for us.”

Mama E’Kun changed the plan again. “Kam is walking me home, if I took some with us, he could carry it. Send down three crocks.

Mama S’TO piled berries on a bean cake and drizzled some cheese over the top. “Come T’SSy, some fresh fruit will make you feel better, and only the very rich get a treat like this cheese, but then our girls were raised in the city, so they know about these things.” She served Mama S’TnG a bean cake laden with berries and cheese.”

The sick woman fretted, “I’m not used to that stuff. I don’t like new things. I’m not hungry. I’m never hungry.”

Ulaylee hadn’t grown waspish as a spinster to no avail, “Mama S’TnG, your son owns land, a house and herds. He’s rich compared to the laborers in the city. We must live befitting our station in life and that means not eating like peasants.” She turned to her sister, “If you can send a pitcher down with Hau, I’ll send back goat milk, too. I really need dishes and haven’t found good clay to make some.”

“I’ll send back dishes with Kam.” Mama E’KuN volunteered. “Papa and I want to give you a wedding gift.”

Mama S’TO had lived with Ulaylee long enough to know she wasn’t the best cook in the valley, “Ulaylee, Mr. S’TO thinks you might do best to spend your time weaving rather than cooking. I can send you bean cakes if you can make us spun goods.”

“Rope.” Marina said. “I know it isn’t so much fun to make, but you make good strong rope, and we can always use more.”

“I agree rope first, but we need blankets for the babies. If you make the yarn, we can knit.” Sabrina pleaded with her older sister.

Mama E’KuN lifted her chin and brushed a whisp of hair behind her ear. “Oh I’m so happy to see my daughters settled so well.” She looked around the hut and into the shrubbery outside the door. “You will make your husband very rich.” She nodded.

Before the sun reached its noon-day height, Ulaylee’s guests departed with promises to return. Mama S’TO’s promise may have sounded more like a threat to the sick woman on the cot in the corner. Mama S’TO hugged Ulaylee, “Now don’t fret about cooking. I’ll bring something by tomorrow, if you can have some rope for us.” She turned to her old enemy, “Goodbye T’SSy, I’ll be back real often. Us country girls are just going to have to learn the ways of rich city people. Your son has married well.” She left.

Mama S’TnG lay back on her cot and whined, “I’m in pain. I must rest. People make me tired”

Ulaylee said, “You rest. I’ll go make rope to trade. I think I’ll ask Mama to send a healer to us for your pain.”

“Nobody can help me.” Mama S’TnG whined.

Ulaylee hummed to shut out the sound of the whining as she changed from the pretty dress to her familiar work clothes. She silently marveled over owning two dresses. Finally, she set a gourd of water beside Mama S’TnG and left for the day.

Mama S’TnG had a broken pelvis, but she could still think. She lay in the dark hut and contemplated her new daughter. She felt certain the girl was as ignorant as she was ugly. Mama thought about Ulaylee’s sisters and her own childhood rival. She contemplated complex concepts like power and wealth. As she drifted off to sleep, she recognized that the ugly woman her son brought home just might be very powerful and would bring the family great wealth, as much as wealth existed in their valley.

There are thin places where distance between realms collapses. –Celtic Folklore

This morning, I picked five hundred daffodils before coming inside to rest my back on the sofa. My eyes closed as I mentally reviewed my latest manuscript.

A rap on my sliding glass doors brought me upright. The man beyond the glass looked familiar. He smiled and dimples appeared in each cheek. My heart lurched as I stared. His bright blue eyes contrasted with his mocha skin and curly hair. Feeling dizzy and disoriented, I slid open the door and whispered, “Jake?”

He nodded. “Celia sent me.”

Excitement vibrated through me as I threw myself into his arms. “My sister, how is my twin?”

Jake kissed me on top of my head. His accent sounded just as I’d always imagined. “She is well and eager to see you.”

“Why are you here? How?” I refrained from reminding him he was only a character in my stories and my sister had been dead since birth. Jake felt real enough to my arms.

Jake held up his hand to show me a collection of forks wrapped in a napkin. “Celia thought these might be yours. When we discovered how they came to us, we thought we must try to see you.”

I nodded, dumbly taking the forks. They matched my set, and I’d been missing some. I absently set the forks on a table and motioned for Jake to sit. As I moved my laptop off of the sofa, I felt my heart race. “Jake, where in your story are you? Are you still president?”

He nodded, “Celia thought you might know our future. I must flee the country if Papadakos is elected.”

“You must flee before the inauguration. Carter-Bowles is a traitor. He will try to arrest and kill you.”

Jake shook his head, “No. He is Mariah’s cousin. He will win then, you think?”

Knowing the events occurring in the rough draft of my next novel, I nodded. “What does Leroy say about him?”

Jake snorted, “Leroy says he became a prosecutor in order to send that cheating scum to prison someday.”

“Trust Leroy. He knows his cousin. Mariah is too trusting. Can you escape to Celia’s home?”

Jake drew his head back as he looked at me. “I think you do not quite understand. Celia’s home is still within the reach of my enemies.”

“Oh, of course, I forgot. You won’t be safe where you are known. I paused then added, “In time, Peter will become president then Ruben, but your country still needs you.”

Jake ran his hands through his hair. The lines at the corners of his eyes seemed to droop. “I’m old and tired.” He took a deep breath and looked toward the forest. “I will flee and let the young men have their turn at glory.” He snorted as his voice filled with sarcasm on his last word.

I felt disconnected as I watched the familiar face I’d seen only in my imagination.

Jake sighed and admitted, “Peter and Leroy agree with you that I must flee somewhere beyond the reach of the oligarchs. Celia longs to see you. It has been a lifetime since she was able to touch you.”

My eyes filled with tears at the thought of holding my sister.

“Can we come here? We are real in your world. When the troubles are over perhaps we can go home. I hope so. I long to watch the sun go down from my ridge.” Jake’s eyes focused on the wall behind me.

I suspected Jake was watching a sunset in another land. “Of course you can come.” I bit my lip. “I don’t know much about these things. Can Celia come through and be okay?”

“The two of you seem to have an extraordinary bond. As far as we know, she will be fine because she is alive at home and in your books.”

We made plans until Jake looked at his watch and pushed himself to his feet. “It’s time for me to go. We will leave before the inauguration.” His shoulders sagged as he moved like an old man toward the door.

“How do you get home from here?”

Jake’s forehead puckered. “Where you do your martial arts. I saw you there when I was exercising.”

I knew the place he meant. I’d exercised there because I liked the feel of the energy. I thought the trees made the energy. Maybe they do, or maybe the energy comes from something physics cannot yet explain. I walked Jake to the circle of trees at the edge of the woods.

Jake put out his hand to stop me. “I’ll go from here. Remember, we will come when we can.“ Jake flashed his dimples at me again, turned, and in a flash of red light disappeared around a corner into a quantum collapse.

Alone in my house, I collapsed on the sofa feeling drained. I rested my head on a pillow and closed my eyes.

I awoke, smiling. I felt peaceful and thought, “What a haunting dream.” I had dreamed about my twin before and even wrote a life for her in my books, but the dream about actually seeing her touched my soul.

Hubby came in before dinnertime, kissed me, and asked, “How was your day?”

“I got all my flowers picked then took a nap. I had the sweetest dream.”

He paused and frowned at the table. “What are all these forks doing here? They look like the ones we’re missing.”

I stared at the forks in my husband’s hand as he unwrapped them from their napkin. Clearly stitched in one corner of the napkin, I saw the state seal from Jake’s country.

Why on earth did Leah show up at my anniversary party? She wasn’t invited, and she wasn’t expected. She certainly wasn’t welcome. Her arrival took me so much by surprise I didn’t send her off immediately. My surprise was justified, because I still thought she was under house arrest in a convent. But show up, she did.

Of course people whispered. My daughter snarled, “Someone ought to kick her butt.”

I responded, “I’m sure many people want to, but still, she is trying to be helpful, and she has always been praised for her artistic taste.” The last part of this sentence was prompted by Leah’s insistence that we needed a unifying motif for the party decorations.

Not only did Leah arrive uninvited, she came early to direct our last minute preparations. I’d put up ribbons and tulle to mark off the parking area and our driveway. Leah actually condescended to approve of the ribbons and tulle. Actually, she praised and flattered. She liked the ribbons so much she declared the gold ribbons to be my unifying motif. So, an hour before the other guests arrived, we ran around decorating each table with long gold ribbons pinned to the cloths.

The guests arrived and more whispering occurred. My college roommate told eager ears, “When my mother heard about her, she was shocked.”

“She shouldn’t have come, still the decorations look nice.” Another college friend declared.

“My mother told me she’s evil,” a younger relative hissed.

Even my brother had heard of her villainy, “I thought she got what she deserved. I’m surprised she’s not locked up.”

As the party got underway, Leah spoke only to her attendant and me as she sat in her wheelchair near the food table. I found her behavior typical for her. Perhaps she really is somewhat shy, and her habit of sitting in a prominent place and not speaking is part of her shyness, but she also appears to want attention.

The more I thought about Leah, the more I saw her behavior as a familiar pattern. I knew of several times when she’d manipulated others into accepting her back into their lives after she’d done horrific deeds resulting in house arrest. I'd hard how she’d cooperated with her husband’s enemies to allow her own daughter to be abducted, knowing her husband would agree to any terms to rescue his beloved daughter. This is the woman who dared to show up at my party looking frail and pitiful while making helpful suggestions for my preparations.

I'd heard how Leah had tried to kill her husband, which should have left her incarcerated despite the fact that she’d been shot leaving her a semi-cripple tied to her wheelchair. She managed to convince the judge that she wanted to devote the rest of her life to a convent in the mountains of her country as penance for her sins. Since her spinal chord had been severed in the lower back, the judge relented and granted her request to serve her life term in the convent.

The fact that she showed up at my house half a world away from the convent told me she’d used her manipulative powers to gain her freedom from her light sentencing.

My lip curled as I watched the younger man who served as her attendant lovingly adjust Leah’s shawl around her elegant shoulders. He tenderly tucked her blanket around her legs then whispered in her ear. She nodded. He turned away to prepare a plate of food for her. Knowing Leah as I do, I could see how she had the person who should be her jailor completely under her control.

I finally shook my head as I realized why I’d let Leah stay at the party. I knew I’d been manipulated. I’d thought there was really no reason to turn her away when her crimes had not been directed at me. She acted helpful and genuinely eager to congratulate me on my anniversary, yet we were practically strangers. I knew my own understanding of her limits, her reputation for artistic elegance, and her frail appearance clouded my judgment.

Leah had certainly created drama with the whispers that circled around her in the back room. Had she come to cause drama? Her ex-husband and new wife had visited earlier, but his official duties called him home before the party. Did she come thinking they’d be here? I narrowed my eyes. No. She knew they couldn’t stay. I finally decided I represented someone just close enough to her former circle of acquaintances to be useful and far enough removed to not excite the authorities by her visit.

I watched my guests. Most didn’t know about Leah’s notorious behavior and saw only a beautiful, elegant woman in a wheelchair. They spoke to her and smiled at her answers. I watched as she charmed men and women alike. Soon, she had a small collection of guests around her. I watched as people began to leave. They stopped and said goodbye to Leah wishing her well. They didn’t see the triumphant looks she gave them as they walked away.

Even some guests who knew of her treachery seemed to be caught in her spell as she humbly pulled her scarf up over her head in manner reminiscent of a nun’s habit and talked of the convent and her hours of prayer.

I watched Leah as she slid easily between being elegant, gracious, and charming to being pitiful and frail then morphing into the humble, repentant sinner. I watched her performance and realized that the beautiful, frail Leah is a dangerous master sociopath.

I will warn her ex-husband and his bodyguards that she is loose and working her way closer to those who know him. I fully believe that Leah will try to kill again. My party was just one step in her journey to find her prey.

On this particular Tuesday, the Blackfish Writer’s Club hosted a new member. Cali wrote for the local newspaper. She had encouraged the group to spend their Tuesday nights together doing writing sprints. She settled herself with her laptop to try to make the girls volleyball awards-banquet a story worthy of print.

The writers sat hunched over their laptops in various stages of writing or fidgeting. Timmy’s fingers flew as he copied out a series of bread recipes for his latest project, a cookbook on Northwest Cuisine. Enid moaned, “I can’t write. This is all crap.” She chewed her non-existent nails while Larkin muttered something about discipline. Carl snapped, “Will you two be quiet?” Alien cat/people toyed with their human dinners in his head. Hannah gazed into the middle distance enjoying the relative quiet, and Jane swayed back and forth in her chair trying to capture her poetic muse.

Five minutes into the first sprint, a local student, Andrew, tiptoed into the room and whispered in Timmy’s ear.

Timmy scowled and asked, “Why didn’t anybody call the cops?”

“They aren’t doing anything wrong, just singing and dancing, but they look really weird. Pastor Maude said we should tell you, because she didn’t know what they were.”

All the writers stopped and stared at Andrew. Enid demanded, “What do you mean weird, and who are they?”

“I don’t know who they are. That’s why I came to get Timmy.” Andrew wailed in tones of adolescent angst. “They’re…they…um…they glow sort of like.” Andrew ducked his head and mumbled the last of this sentence.

Timmy shoved himself to his feet. “Sounds like some of your classmates playing a prank, but if the pastor is concerned enough to send for me, I better check this out.”

Smelling a news story, Cali leapt to her feet. “The rest of us will come too. Kids on drugs can be belligerent.”

Enid stood and pulled on her sweater. “Might as well. Every word I write is crap.”

Everybody else followed muttering among them selves. As soon as the huddle of writers left the restaurant, they heard the singing and saw a faint glow near the woods behind the playfield at the Methodist church.

They joined the small group of people in the church parking lot. In hushed voices they discussed what to do. Finally, Timmy declared, “This is ridiculous. It’s probably just a group of kids practicing for a play or something. I’ll go check.” He strode off in the direction of the dancers near the woods.

Before Timmy had taken ten strides, the glowing dancers leaped into the air and disappeared. Timmy stopped mid-stride and turned with his mouth agape. Before he could speak, the music started again. It floated on the evening air from the low-income apartments behind Timmy’s. The huddle of people started to follow the sound.

As soon as they saw the glow of the dancers again, the dancers leaped into the air and vanished. Enid sighed. Timmy swore. The pastor started muttering a prayer under her breath. Finally, Timmy found his voice. “I wonder what that was?”

For an answer, the singing resumed somewhere near the Catholic Church. This time the group of onlookers set out at a brisk pace to get a better look at the phenomenon. They found the now familiar glow near the shrubbery at the far end of the Catholic parking lot.

Her companions heard Enid whispering something about faeries, as they tried to silently creep up on the dancers. Enid slid behind a bush, but Larkin the local English teacher strode forward with both arms outstretched toward the dancers. When Larkin stepped onto the gravel of the parking lot, the dancers again leaped into the air and disappeared.

Larkin brushed at his coat sleeves as if they had gotten dusty. “I know what is happening. Those who know about these things have suspected this for a long time. The government has set up large magnetic plasma disrupters at strategic locations around the globe. They can target any place where they want to control the people or destroy whole buildings. This is really how they brought down the World Trade Center. When one of us enters into the magnetic field, we disturb the field. The government can detect our presence and shut down their plasma canons if they want. This is their latest weapon to control or destroy the masses. What we are seeing is a very low level beam. Their reactor must be at the submarine base.” Larkin’s tone radiated authority.

Timmy suddenly succumbed to a coughing fit and the pastor told him to hush. “I hear it again.”

Enid ventured in an uncertain voice. “I don’t think that is due to anything the government has. I think there is something about the beauty of Blackfish that has attracted the faery folk. This is exactly like what others have reported from Ireland and other places that have a strong cultural recognition of supernatural creatures such as faeries.”

“That’s as good an idea as Larkin’s plasma thingy.” Carl the science fiction writer admitted. “I’d guess something more to do with solar flares and electro magnetic waves.”

The small group continued to guess at what they saw as they picked their way through the dark toward the center of town. When they heard the singing again, it appeared to come from the far side of the main intersection. “They are on the far side of the field of scotch broom.” Enid whispered.

“This is very characteristic of the way a magnetic field would behave. We hear music because of the magnetic vibrations. I’m guessing that the appearance of human-like figures is just a trick of our perception. We see wavering light, which is something similar to lightening from the magnetic field. Our brains interpret this light as human forms.” Carl informed his companions with an air of certainty.

Enid argued. “You may be somewhat right about the magnetic fields. They have been known to create thin spots between overlapping universes. Areas known for having many thin spots are also the areas where most of our information about the faerie folk has come from. The sounds and images are real. We are seeing into another universe.” Enid began to sound quite certain in her beliefs.

Larkin sneered, “I can’t believe you people. I’ve been warning you and warning you that the government has these secret programs to control us and you can’t even believe it when you see it.”

Cali muttered, “Damnit, I left my camera in the car.”

Enid informed her, “Your camera can’t capture pictures of faeries.”

“Do you have a cell phone with you?” Timmy asked.

“Oh how silly of me. I forget about my phone.” Cali fished through her purse.

Once the lights at the main intersection in Blackfish were behind them, the small group of seekers could see the familiar greenish blue glow of the dancers. “Hide behind the scotch broom, and we will be able to sneak up on them.” Enid hissed.

“I think if we stay on the side walk along this edge of the lot, we will be able to get closer to the vortex without disturbing the magnetic field.” Carl had lowered his voice to a commanding whisper.

Carl and Enid let their party along the sidewalk with Larkin warning, “If you feel tingling on your extremities that means they have you in a beam and will try to control you. They may be trying to get us to kill each other, so watch each other carefully.”

When Enid motioned for them to stay low, they all bent over and continued to scuttle along the sidewalk.

“Yes, keep yourself small and you will be less likely to disturb the magnetic field.” Carl whispered.

Cali did stand when she found a small willow tall enough to hide her body. She snapped several pictures of the dancers with her cell phone. Timmy coughed again and the dancers leapt into the air and vanished.

Andrew drew attention to himself by turning in a circle “Look at the pattern the appearances are making. Is it going to be a circle?”

“It should be random.” Carl answered.

“No. Nothing in the universe is random. It all has to do with how energy acts within its environment.” Andrew argued.

“What I meant was that the pattern will appear random to us because we don’t know all the variables that cause the phenomenon.”

Whatever the variables might have been that caused the phenomenon, they changed and despite standing in the cold and dark for another twenty minutes the small group didn’t see or hear anything else. Finally, the writers returned to their meeting and the students and pastor went on their ways with promises to call if they saw the lights again.

Once inside, the writers set to work at their computers. Enid announced, “I’m going to give up Regency Romances. I think I’m called to write Fantasy. It’s more popular now.” She set to work. The room fell silent except for occasional humming and the light tapping of fingers on computer keys as the scribes worked in a silent fever of writing.

Carl puckered his brow as he stared closely at his computer screen. Cali poked at her phone, trying to transfer stubborn photos to her computer. Jane wrapped her sweater and scarves more tightly around her body as she swayed and nodded while writing away. Larkin feverously pounded the keyboard, entering all he’d seen into his notes for his book on the events leading up to World War III.

After a half hour of good solid work, Timmy gathered up the recipe cards he was copying from and slipped out into the restaurant. He took a handful of five-dollar bills out of the till. He grinned as he approached three tables of youth at the back of the restaurant. “I hope Renee gave you enough to eat. Thanks for your help. I got more writing done tonight than I have in a month despite our little field trip.”

The students thanked Timmy for the food as they accepted the five dollars he handed each of them. They giggled and danced a few steps as they left the restaurant never again to be faeries, or space aliens, or a government plot.